Plot: Twenty-nine years after winning his first Tour Championship, retired golfer Happy Gilmore returns to the sport to pay for his daughter Vienna’s ballet school.
Review: When Happy Gilmore hit theaters in 1996, I was a dumb high schooler who had loved the idiocy of Adam Sandler’s Billy Madison and hoped for more of the sophomoric shenanigans that film delivered. Reteaming with Billy Madison co-writer Tim Herlihy, Happy Gilmore was a hilariously stupid sports movie with Sandler’s trademark yelling and bizarre jokes wrapped in an underdog tale. Naming his production company after his first two hit films, Adam Sandler has gone on to make dozens of similar movies interspersed with acclaimed movies like Punch-Drunk Love and Uncut Gems. After three decades, Sandler and Herlihy have returned to give audiences the long-awaited Happy Gilmore 2, which replicates the heartfelt stupidity of the original movie along with as many cameos as possible from Hollywood and the world of professional golf. While Happy Gilmore 2 is not as good as the first movie, it has its heart in the right place and will please fans who grew up with the original.
Happy Gilmore 2 finds Adam Sandler’s rage-fueled hockey player-turned-golfer a broke alcoholic with five kids after the untimely death of his wife, Virginia (Julie Bowen). Recapping the last three decades using de-aging technology, the film finds Happy struggling to figure out how to send his youngest child, Vienna (Sunny Sandler), to a ballet school in Paris. With the support of former golfer John Daly, Happy rejoins the professional circuit to make some money. Offered a chance to join a competing golf league run by Frank Manatee (Benny Safdie) and trying to recover through a support group run by Hal (Ben Stiller), Happy has to find his happy place once again as he competes with much younger professional golfers and the return of Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald).
For the first half of Happy Gilmore 2, I was expecting this movie to be a retread of the first as Happy tries to figure out how to harness his unique skills to win golf tournaments while being impeded by a nemesis on the green. Sandler, as he has done for the last decade, incorporates his wife and daughters into the movie while surrounding himself with his acting friends to turn the production from a job into a paid vacation. Thankfully, Happy Gilmore 2 does not feel like an exercise in cashing a check like many of Sandler’s Netflix projects have. It does assemble a massive cast of actors from prior Happy Madison productions, including Steve Buscemi, Kevin Nealon, Rob Schneider, Jon Lovitz, Robert Smigel, Nick Swardson, and Tim Herlihy as well as big names like Travis Kelce, Bad Bunny, Scott Mescudi, Eric Andre, Haley Joel Osment, Margaret Qualley, and Eminem as well as dozens of professional golfers and athletes from other sports. There is not a single scene in the entire movie that does not boast a recognizable face having a blast playing a silly role.
There are so many jokes in Happy Gilmore 2 that are either references to the first film or actual footage from the 1996 movie that pad the almost two-hour running time of the sequel that it occasionally feels unnecessary. By the time the story takes a turn halfway through, Happy Gilmore 2 shifts from a legacy continuation of the first movie into something completely bonkers. It is worth watching to see the twist that takes Happy Gilmore 2 in a direction I never saw coming, but it works when you think about the ridiculous nature of this story to begin with. I appreciate the effort that went into making Happy Gilmore 2 its own movie, but that comes at the cost of trying to cram in fan service on top of the twist in the plot. Overall, it works because Adam Sandler does not try to play the older version of Happy Gilmore as the same guy he was in the first movie, while still letting his rage come out to play.
Directed by Murder Mystery helmer Kyle Newachek, Happy Gilmore 2 put the clearly substantial budget provided by Netflix into landing the copious cameos that also include Post Malone, Reggie Bush, Ken Jennings, Dan Patrick, and golfers Keegan Bradley, Bryson DeChambeau, John Daly, Tony Finau, Rickie Fowler, Charley Hull, Brooks Koepka, Nelly Korda, Nancy Lopez, Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa, Jack Nicklaus, Corey Pavin, Xander Schauffele, Paige Spiranac, Scottie Scheffler, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, and Lee Trevino. Of everyone in the cast, the standouts are Benny Safdie, who portrays the great villain Frank Manatee, and Bad Bunny, who may be the funniest member of this cast. Eminem and Marcello Hernandez had me laughing as much as John Daly and golfer Will Zalatoris, who digs into a joke that connects to the original movie. There are also some nice nods to departed actors from the first movie, including Carl Weathers, Richard Kiel, Joe Flaherty, and Frances Bay.
Happy Gilmore 2 works far better than many legacy sequels we have seen over the years, but does not distinguish itself from Adam Sandler’s output since shifting from the big screen to Netflix. At times, this sequel feels like it could have been funnier had it been a bit more profane and riskier than what we got, but it is still a fun return to a character that fans have enjoyed for thirty years. Seeing characters reprised by the same actors years later can sometimes be bittersweet, but Sandler, McDonald, and Bowen are good at not playing their characters as if no time has passed. Happy Gilmore 2 will make fans of the first movie smile and does not besmirch the legacy of Happy Gilmore. Golf fans will have a lot of fun seeing their favorites act silly while comedy fans will get some good laughs, but it will never be as good as the first.
Happy Gilmore 2 is now streaming on Netflix.
Source:
JoBlo.com
